US Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has promised tougher antitrust enforcement, said she would not rule out a settlement with Meta’s Facebook, which the agency sued in 2020, but indicated there was a high bar for any agreement.
In an interview on Tuesday, she also criticised what she said was a large number obviously illegal deals and added she was not a fan of agreements to remedy problematic mergers with asset sales.
Nor does she like behavioral remedies, when companies pledge a particular policy change for a certain number of years.
In December 2020, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Facebook, saying that the company behaved illegally to protect its social network monopoly under former President Donald Trump.
“We’ve put out the relief that we believe would be necessary,” Khan said when asked about the chances of a settlement. I believe you can assess the chances of Facebook voluntarily accepting some of that relief.”
The Federal Trade Commission has asked a judge to require Facebook to unwind its 2012 and 2014 acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
“Of course, as an agency, we’re always thinking about preserving resources, how to think about settlements, the trade-offs against pursuing litigation, but this is an extraordinarily significant topic for the agency, and we’re serious about the relief that we’re providing.”